How's the media spin in your neck of the woods?

This morning, before I'd been awake an hour I had heard several times on the radio that new "reports" indicate that the government and financial communities have the pesky little Y2K problem "well in hand". One consumer guy with a two-hour show did the "I told you,...", also, "Polls show that Y2K-related spending is going down,...etc, etc." "I knew that the worst problems could come with frenzied people out there panicking". On the next show, hosted by a 'computer expert' echoed with similar statements.

So, how's the local media spin in YOUR neck of the woods? How's your cognitive dissonance these days? Last night, my 20-something daughter and her boyfriend were over. She and I talked about how it is never irrational to be prepared for emergencies, no matter what the madding crowd thinks, says and does.

Answers

Well.....where I live they haven't gotten to" spin" yet! Its never mentioned in the paper or on the radio in our neck of the woods. Tho out here in the Forest, there are a lot of survivalists that can take care of themselves. A lot of dead beats too that I hope go to the city to get into the food and water lines from FEMA, Red Cross, etc. If I didn't have a computer, I wouldn't have a clue and neither would friends and neighbors. I print an awful lot of stuff and give it out. Buy my paper by the box and ink by the pt.

The positive stories began appearing immediately after the "Panic may
be a greater problem than Y2K" stories which began appearing
immediately after that meeting where the the media was advised to
find the correct "voice" when reporting Y2K (so people wouldn't
panic).

White lettering on a black background, "There are still 9 months left
until Y2K." Then it breaks into some lame 3d animation
saying, "break out," and guess what, it's a car commercial! You've
got some time left, buy a Ford (my comment, not in the commercial)!

Wow! I think it's for a local dealership. Has anyone else seen
this? It airs fairly often on the NBC station in Minneapolis.
Strange motivator for buying a car.

I've been a PC consultant for medium sized companies for about 7
years locally. When I finally GI, I started a website for our
community on Y2K awareness. I did a press release to our local
newspaper (which runs trivial local business articles like saleman of
the month). It's been a month and they haven't run my release yet !

The good news is that many people in my area are preparing for Y2K
and the website is getting considerable traffic. Suprising,
considering a noticeable lack of Press in our locality.

The commercial is national!? Frankly, I hope that you're from the
Twin Cities. The local NBC station also ran a "cute" little what is
your Christmas wish bit in December. The last in the line up was a
guy who said, "I wish that Y2K would turn out to be fine." That's
not an exact quote, it has been months. All in all, this is a very
strange time to be alive.

P.S.

Maybe the ad people were inserting a bit of their own thought into
the campaign. I'm a graphic designer and would do such things if I
was involved in a T.V. campaign.

Nothing in the local rags here in NJ for the past several weeks, since
the Senate report. I did hear the spin master, Koskinen, on the Motley
Fool radio show out of Phila yesterday. No news here, as expected.
-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), April 04, 1999.

Since around late January / early February, the positive spin has been
steadily increasing and become quite consistent. I've seen it in the
media and on the forums I monitor. Each forum now has a few resident
self-proclaimed "panic preventers". I've also noticed that the spin
is applied even more liberally over holdiay weekends. This weekend is
about par for the course.

The powers-that-be had better pray that this is the tiniest of bumps.
Anything else might well bring panic & chaos. Ironic, lets say Y2K is
going to be a 3 from technical faults, however, a suddenly aroused
citizenry could indeed make it much worse. The Philadelphia area is
very ill prepared. Of course, you know who will get blamed.!

I think I know who will get blamed, but I don't think it will be us.
The same reasons that the general poopulace (spelling intended) won't
get Y2K are the same reasons that we will not be blamed. When the
sheeple see problems getting their checks they'll blame the banks.
When welfare gets bad, they'll blame the government.

Most people can not comprehend multiple connections. They will see
cause and effect in a simple way and they will blame those who are
the most obvious. We won't be blamed, but we will be targets for our
supplies. Simple as that.

This is a mess one way or another. Use your second amendment rights
and arm yourselves. Teach your children responsibility and respect
for people no matter what color they are. If we aren't careful we
may all glow in the dark anyway.

Plenty of commercials on both TV and radio LA/Orange County metro area
using/hyping the upcoming Millennium Celebrations..."don't
forget,...if you by that mattress and box spring today, you get
deferred payments and interest 'til April 2000,..." Also home PC
fixes...but in general all the media reporting continues to cast
aspersions upon those who think we'll see anything more than a bump in
the road.

In view of what we all know about big corporate-run media here's an
interesting essay from a web site called Transparency Now. Ken Sanes
is a professor of communication (I think) at a local Orange Co.
community college. The whole web site is worth a look, but this link
is to one exerpt from his book "Image and Action: The News Media's
Effort To Hide From Significant Truth".

"This essential act of corruption on the part of the news media is
all the more
disturbing when we begin to see the nature of the system
that journalists have
allowed themselves to become a part of. Today, large-scale
decision-making in
America (and other nations) is, to a considerable extent,
under the control of a
kind of virtual "oligarchy", made up of corporations,
political groups, and
media. All manipulate government to achieve their own ends
and all use
television and other forms of mass media to shape public
opinion."

I have found the only place to find out what is really going on, is
via books and the internet. I have seen a little bit in newspapers,
television and radio, and of course they say the same old thing . . .
stock up for a few days just in case, but basically all is okey.

I personally have been told by owners of ammo store that their stock
is way down and they are already having a hard time getting some
things. They also expect prices to rise on ammo. Additionally I have
been told by a plastic container company owner about surrounding
cities and churches who are are stockpiling.

I feel that the internet is the best source of information on Y2K and
have given up on the 'plastic' media sources for information.

However, I do think that some of the internet sites are a bit ''out
there'', but you can still get tidbits of what others in the US are
thinking and also some good ideas on all sorts of subjects including,
food storage, bartering and just ''where'' others stand on the Y2K
subject. There are a lot more persons who are worried than the media
is letting on. I know they are just trying to keep things under wraps
like they usually do. After all, we are just the ''public'' to them
and they want to make sure that they are all stocked up before they
give us a clue of the real status of things. I will continue to use
the internet as my source of information. Thanks for letting me sound
off. I do like this site and Time Bomb 2000 is a great book for
waking people up. I am currently passing it around my family.

The quote is from the web site I linked above....the man's name is Ken
Sanes, and is a communications professor at a college local to me.
I'm not sure his area of expertise is communication..might be
sociology...I only know I like what I have read of his essays and book
exerpts.

here in DC the mood could best be described as schizophrenic...but
then that's normal for around here. it's sort of a cross between

"get ready for a bad winter storm / no don't do that it's hoarding"

and

"look at the poor refugees / let's drop more bombs and blame it all
on a punk dictator / but whatever you do don't make it sound like
anyone in this country could ever end up in the same shape those
refugees are in".

Arlin,..why am I not surprised....and they call LA "LaLaLand", eh?
Go figure. As an aside, one of the reasons why we stay here is there
is a strong and growing group of people here who seek out alternative
economy, who don't buy wholesale BS. But I digress. Alternative
economy gets one weird looks in the grocery store.

Occasional optimistic pieces in the newspapers that were on the
Internet 2-3 weeks earlier.......

Little on TV that I have seen, since I did a short interview (along
with several others) with a local TV station.

Also, since our first local Y2K awareness meeting, with 350
attending, where the local "powers that be" were mostly consistent in
their "snowstorm" approach, the subject has dropped off of the
screen.....

no kidding - later this summer I'm moving to a small midwestern town
where the entire sewer system is run by gravity, and the water system
has a tank so big (or the town is so small..) that even if the
electricity from the utility goes out, they still only have to run
the backup generator for a few hours every third or fourth day to
allow the pump to refill the tower.

oh, and at 1/2 of the homes have woodstoves already with more being
scrounged/bartered even as we speak.

In Milwaukee, the only newspaper in town has proclaimed that Y2K
"probably will be solved", and has printed at least a dozen editorial
cartoons and letters to the editor lambasting anyone who is
preparing. They completely ignored the Senate Report, which
boggled my mind.

The local radio and TV stations have occasionally done 1 minute fluff
pieces, all with the same basic conclusion: everything's fine, now to
the story about a cute puppy. Maddening.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people get their news from these
outlets. More and more, I am convinced that most people suffer from
attention deficit disorder of varying degrees. Few people I talk to
care to hear details. They want the 30-second answers. They certainly
get that from the local media.

Steve,...good to see that you are still here. I have family in N.
Illinois, not far from you, and I know it's not much different there.
You've been valiant...How are you doing? I've wimped out,
majorly...is it too late? I ask it and I know the answer is no and
yes.

The "Sunday Currents" section of the San Diego Union-Tribune
had a full page article and pictures on local Y2K preparations,
including extensive mention of the Connirys and their survival
classes. A fairly balanced piece - certainly didn't diss people who
were preparing. Interestingly, the online version of the Sunday
U-T doesn't have the article. Not sure what their online
publishing process is, but many, many more people will see the
deadtree version anyhow.

Also, in the "Insights" (Op-Ed) section, a number of well-written
pieces on the Kosovo crisis, with some comments and analysis with
applications to Y2K.

Fail to plan for contingencies and you plan to fail. This basic
rule of combat aviation is hammered home in rather brutal fashion to
military pilots throughout their training. In fact, pre-mission briefs
which do not include an egress plan are graded as failures on the
spot, because it is considered a waste of money to fly until the
deficiency has been corrected.

It would be encouraging to see this administration apply similar
discipline to its strategy for the Balkans -- just in case sixty years
of military aviation history doesn't suddenly stand on its head.
Surely our leadership was briefed prior to the start of Allied Force
that air power might well prove inadequate. Yet rather than develop or
articulate a response to this contingency, the administration appears
to have crossed its fingers and foolishly hoped that events would
unfold as desired. Faced with a somewhat different result, we risk
sinking into a protracted, messy campaign, in which the time, place
and manner of our involvement may be dictated not by us, but by our
enemies, the media, and fate.

The local paper did an excellent 5 day series on y2k in Dec. 1998.
They covered SSA, Medicare, (didn't paint a pretty picture) local
water company, hospitals, schools, and some preparation. Since then
they have failed to follow up.

I contacted the mayor's office and spoke with an assistant who stated,
"I fail to see how y2k compliancy in foreign countries could possibly
affect us." My next thought was what about the state's compliancy?

Louisiana has accomplished about 34% of their remediation work with no
special y2k budget. Chief industry here consists of chemical, oil, and
natural gas. (scary!)

A reporter from our county paper left a message the other day telling
me thatshe was preparing a story on y2k for "later in the year" about
"survivalists and doomsayers". In the course of my activities, had I
run into any of "THOSE types"? I'm drafting my response . . .
carefully.

While we're on the subject of spin, I assume most of you realize that
the trade association representing a majority of electrical utilities
(NERC) has publicly stated it wants a meaningful story for publication
regarding the April 9 electric industry communications drill.

Mark your calendars. Keep an eye on the news on April 9, 10 and 11.
Watch for headlines like: "National Power Grid Passes Y2k Test," and
so forth.

Here in upstate Noo Yawk, everything's fixed. Yup. State gov fixed ALL the computers, banks are all okay, power, munis, you name it. No Y2K problems here.
And that's lucky, because we STILL don't have a state budget, now two months overdue.